This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Toronto man killed by sniper in Egyptian clashes

Amr Kassem, vacationing in Egypt with his wife and young daughter, was shot and killed while peacefully protesting in Alexandria.

Amr Kassem, shown with his wife Asmaa Hussein and their baby daughter Ruqaya, was shot dead during a protest in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Friday. The Toronto couple was in Egypt to visit Kassem's parents. (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

Asmaa Hussein couldn’t stop calling her husband Amr Kassem to make sure he was safe.

The Toronto resident was in the streets of the Egyptian city of Alexandria Friday, protesting the killing of hundreds during a bloody military crackdown in Cairo earlier in the week. He had just attended the funeral of a protester shot in those clashes when he joined the crowd.

Don’t worry, Kassem reassured his wife over and over. It’s a peaceful protest. He would come home soon to her and their 9-month-old daughter Ruqaya.

He was shot in the back of the head by a sniper, she says. Security forces probably singled him out for his big beard, wrongly thinking he was a member of ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, she says.

“He was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, or involved with them politically. He doesn’t even normally go to protests. He just went out because of what happened in Cairo, to protest the killing of protesters,” said Hussein, speaking from her in-laws’ home in Alexandria, where she can hear gunshots from her window.

“He felt really strongly about the injustice that was happening. He had these principles in his mind. He was just somebody who saw something wrong happening and he couldn’t stay silent.”

The young family — Hussein is 27, Kassem, 26 — lived in Toronto where Hussein was born and raised. They went on vacation in June to visit family in Egypt, their first chance to introduce their daughter to Kassem’s family. They were booked to fly home from Cairo on Monday.

Hussein met Kassem, a pharmacist, while visiting family in Egypt and they got married two years ago. Kassem had gotten his permanent residency and was working on transferring his pharmacy qualifications.

“He was the love of my life,” says Hussein. “He’s such a kind person, such a generous person. He was the best husband, the most supportive husband. I never thought I would deserve somebody so good. And he loved our daughter so much.

“We have a 9-month-old baby and to imagine her growing up without a father, it’s very hard,” she says, tears choking off her words. “The idea of her not knowing her father, it’s killing me.”

After Hussein learned Kassem had been shot, her husband’s father and brother, both doctors, went to retrieve his body. A graphic video posted on a YouTube channel that documents the protests in Alexandria shows Kassem’s body covered in a bloodstained rug. The same video shows panic in the street as gunshots are fired.

On the day of Kassem’s death, the Muslim Brotherhood had declared a “Day of Rage” sparked by security forces using snipers, bulldozers and tear gas to clear two pro-Morsi sit-in demonstrations in Cairo on Wednesday.

More than 640 people died and the violence continued on Thursday.

On Friday, dozens more were killed in violent clashes between security forces and Muslim Brotherhood supporters — including at least 21 in Alexandria, according to media reports. Hussein was told that many people died the same way as her husband in the Alexandria protest.

“I just want people to be aware,” said Hussein, a Masters of Social Work graduate from the University of Toronto. “These are crimes against humanity. People need to be aware of what’s happening here and how unstable it is here.”

“I want his death to mean something,” she said. “I want his death to make people think. These aren’t monsters being killed in the streets, these are regular people like you and me.”

She wants the Canadian government to speak out strongly against what is happening.

Hussein has been offered consular assistance, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, which also confirmed that a Canadian permanent resident was killed in Alexandria on Friday.

However, Hussein says there is little they can do for her, since her documents are already in order.

She was hoping they could provide an escort to help transport her and her daughter to the Cairo airport safely for Monday, but says she was told that’s not a service they provide.

Instead, she will likely delay her flight and try to fly out of Alexandria.

“If I could jump on a plane right now and leave all this behind I would,” she said. “But I have some things to finish up for (Kassem).”

She pauses when asked what she wants her daughter to know about her father.

“I want her to know her dad was brave. That he wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed in. Even though he can’t be with her as she’s growing up, his legacy will be with her,” she says. “As hard as it is for me and for her, that a pretty amazing legacy to leave for a child. For your child to know you are a brave person.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com